1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate generally to a memory system including a plurality of memory devices and, more particularly, to a memory system for managing data stored in a plurality of memory devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
The computer environment paradigm is changing to ubiquitous computing in which a computer system can be used anywhere and at any time. Accordingly, use of portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and notebook computers, is increasing rapidly. In general, such portable electronic devices use a memory system (i.e., a data storage device) using a memory device. The data storage device is used as a main memory or an auxiliary memory of a portable electronic device.
A memory device for a memory system may be a volatile or a nonvolatile memory device. Examples of volatile memory devices include a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and a static RAM (SRAM). Examples of nonvolatile memory devices include a read only memory (ROM), a mask ROM (MROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), a phase-change RAM (PRAM), a magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), a resistive RAM (RRAM), and a flash memory.
Memory devices may be packaged and used in a memory system to increase the capacity and operating speed for the memory system. For example, several memory devices included in a personal computer (PC) are packaged in the form of a module in which the memory devices are integrated into a printed circuit board (PCB) and are mounted on the PC through slots. An example of such a module that is used widely is a dual in-line memory module (DIMM). In a computing platform, a DIMM may be used as a main memory and may include a plurality of DRAMs mounted in a parallel configuration. In the case of a DIMM which includes a plurality of DRAMs, data is stored regardless of the type and/or pattern of the data. As a result, memory access performance within the DIMM may be deteriorated because access speed is the same for all the data regardless of their type and/or pattern which may affect the access frequency of data.